Napoleon. Bill Gates. George W. Bush. Osama bin Laden. Leaders and
leadership are perennial topics of debate. What is leadership? How does
one become a leader? Do we actually need leaders? In this Very Short
Introduction, Keith Grint offers provocative answers to these
questions, prompting readers to rethink their assumptions about what
leadership is. Indeed, Grint argues that leadership is a very elusive
quality, and that there are few definitive answers to be found, which
explains why most books on leadership produce so much heat and so little
light. But there are important questions to ask, questions which shed
light on why leadership so resists definition. Grint looks at the way
leadership has evolved from its earliest manifestations in ancient
societies, highlights the early ideas about leadership found in Plato,
Sun Tzu, Machiavelli and others, considers how social, economic, and
political forces can undermine particular modes of leadership, and
discusses the practice of
management, its history, future, and influence on all aspects of
society.